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Duck Ragù

The annual Father’s Day feast was at our house this year and I opted for an all out stomach exploding menu. We opted to cook a Duck Ragù with some beautiful homemade pasta, served it with a leafy green side salad (see previous post) and topped it off with some homemade garlic bread. *drool

I have never actually cooked with duck before, yet its my favourite meat. Go figure! Anyways, I spent hours flicking through my recipes books until my boyfriend stumbled across a recipe in one of my Gourmet Traveller magazines. It was honestly like fate had interrupted, annoyed it was taking us so long to come up with a plan. It’s an easy recipe and the result is absolutely stunning. The duck meat is tender, full of flavour and is an absolute sensation, seriously.

We bought fresh pasta from a local deli to make life a bit easier and it was well worth the cheat. If you can do the same I highly encourage you to do so.

Serves 4 – 5

A simple recipe packed full of beautiful flavours

The List:

6 duck marylands

1/2 cup pistachio nuts

2 tsp fennel seeds

1 carrot, finely diced

1 celery stick, finely diced

1 large brown onion, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, finely sliced

400g crushed tomatoes (canned)

2 cups vegetable stock

1 cup red wine, Chianti

olive oil

400gm fresh pasta, like pappardelle or fettucine

Salt and pepper, for seasoning

Grated pecorino to serve

The Method:

Coarsely grind fennel seeds using a mortar and pestle, then add pistachios and finely grind. Set aside.

Heat oil in a large saucepan or casserole over medium heat, add duck and cook, turning once, until golden (6-8 minutes), then remove and set aside. Add carrot, celery, onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender (6-8 minutes). Add pistachio mixture, stir to combine, return duck to pan, add wine and bring to the simmer. Add stock and tomato, bring to the simmer, reduce heat to low and simmer until duck is tender (1½-2 hours).

Remove duck from pan and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, shred meat (discard bones and sinew). Return shredded meat to pan, stir to combine, season to taste and keep warm.

Cook pappardelle in a saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente (4-5 minutes). Drain well, add to ragù, toss to combine and season to taste. Serve hot scattered with pecorino and rosemary.